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I play lead at our church in a 600 seat auditorium, and use a British VOX AC15 and a Bad Cat Hot Cat 15 in parallel, both mic'd with 57's. They can EASILY get too loud, but the Vox is the best clean sounding amp I've ever played, and the Bad Cat breaks up the best. Unless you are playing an arena or outside, you don't need more than a 15 watt 1x12.

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Quilter Labs just sent me their new amp to test out for them.. It's really good.. Especially for the size.. The only thing into crazy about is the price.. I'll likely post a review when my 30 days are up.. I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say about it at this point

I see a lot of people recommend the orange tiny terror.. I ave to agree.. I don't currently use an amp.. I'm a x3Live user..but I'm planning to get an amp in the next year, and it will be a tiny terror and a small orange cabinet, provided that I can find the cash... They aren't cheap!

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I'm currently using a VOX VT100, it's discontinued but the VT120+ is the current model. I like it, its a 2x12 combo amp that can go up to 100W solid state. Notice I said "can go up to" this baby has an attenuator, meaning, I can turn the wattage up or down from 10w-100w. The benefit of this is that I can leave my master and channel volumes open so as to get great tone from the amp, and not blow everyone away when I'm in a small setting.

Also it has a tube preamp, so you get some great tones out of it!

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In my opinion, unless you are looking for the versatility of amp modeling, an amp choice boils down to personal preference.

If you are into high gain tones for worship, a Mesa Boogie or Soldano might be the ticket. But those amps fail if you want a Vox AC-30 medium gain to chimey clean tone. The latter is ideal for most modern worship these days although I do hear Casting Crowns doing the high gain thing but their mix can fool you when the guitars are lower in it.

Have any of you found that most tube amps are tool loud for church situations? Even my previous Egnater Rebel 30, which had a knob where I could dial it back to 1 Watt was too loud for a contemporary church that I play at which seats about 1000 people. I had to keep the master no higher than 9:30.

I currently play a Blackstar Ht-60 soloist. While I like it, I struggle to get medium gain tones out of it. It is also too big in my opinion.

For worship, I have gotten great results by using a Pod HD400 with a Tech 21 PE 60 (if I need a stage monitor). The tones aren't quite as good on stage as a tube amp, but in the mix I think a Pod can fool even the most discriminatory ears.

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I've been using a Fender Supersonic 22 which is great and at my church I play with the volume at about 5 or 6 which allows for some nice natural crunch. My wife bought me a Fender Mustang III which I have used several times and for $250 that amp has some amazing sounds built in!

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In my experience, a Pod will fool ears in the recording studio and even in the house mix. The difference is that the guitarist can hear the difference between the Pod sound coming out of a wedge, in-ear monitors or an amp, versus a tube amp.

A tube amp also has great dynamics and arguably cuts through the mix better.

The reason that I say that a Pod can fool ears in the studio and in the house mix?

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In my experience, a Pod will fool ears in the recording studio and even in the house mix. The difference is that the guitarist can hear the difference between the Pod sound coming out of a wedge, in-ear monitors or an amp, versus a tube amp.

A tube amp also has great dynamics and arguably cuts through the mix better.

The reason that I say that a Pod can fool ears in the studio and in the house mix?

It is pretty well known that a modeler, even an older one, will fool even the golden eared more often than not. There are some adjustments that people need to make though, in order to really appreciate what a modeler is FOR.

It is not designed to replace the amp in the room. It is designed to give you the sound of a great amp, mic'd in another room and piped into a monitor. In other words, it gives you a truer picture of what the audience hears. This is a good thing.

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It is pretty well known that a modeler, even an older one, will fool even the golden eared more often than not. There are some adjustments that people need to make though, in order to really appreciate what a modeler is FOR.

It is not designed to replace the amp in the room. It is designed to give you the sound of a great amp, mic'd in another room and piped into a monitor. In other words, it gives you a truer picture of what the audience hears. This is a good thing.

That's what I've concluded as well. So this has always lead me to this question:

- What is the difference between the sound coming out of the mic vs straight from the amp to our ears and can the LATTER be modeled?

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That's what I've concluded as well. So this has always lead me to this question:

- What is the difference between the sound coming out of the mic vs straight from the amp to our ears and can the LATTER be modeled?

The sound from the mic is always going to have a certain color, based on what mic it is and where it is positioned. A lot of recordings of guitar amps have multiple types of mics placed in all kinds of places to capture "that" sound. The engineer then mixes the levels and EQ of the various signals to get the perfect guitar sound for that track. It a completely unrealistic picture, most of the time, from what we'd hear were we in the live room as the recording took place. And then there's double tracking, etc.

The sound of the amp in the room, believe it or not, is significantly more complicated. Not all players like being in the same playing position relative to their amp. Some guys like that Marshall head and 4x12 to be at a 45 degree angle relative to themselves, effectively reducing some of the high frequency content. I like it pointed right at me, catching every detail. That's part of the reason we have different mics and put them in all of these places...we want to hear some things, and not others.

After the modeling engineers come up with the comprehensive list of where people like their amps, they'll need to find a mic that most closely resembles to frequency response and characteristics of the human ear. But whose ear? Everyone hears differently, from slight variations to huge. Assuming they do that, they'll mic it in stereo from the assumed position of the listener. They'll probably have to do this in an anechoic room, since they are only trying to get a perfect picture of the amp itself. The room is up to us, the users. And then of course, there is the actual modeling...the nitty gritty programming and analysis.

That's a pretty simplified version of what it might take, but needless to say, in order to give players the flexibility they want, it will take some work. And when it comes to playing for live audiences, it might not be entirely desirable. Most people haven't heard (appreciably) the sound of a guitar amp...just what they get from the music they buy/steal/listen to on the radio. The difference will be pretty big, and they might not like it.

But I digress from our topic at hand...

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Not sure if the OP has made his purchase or not but if there is still the option get the Vox. It maybe louder but you'll enjoy having something different than a fender. Unless you can get a twin reverb or a vibro king. If money was no option I would have a Hughes Ketner 15 watt and call it a day, load up my pedal board and be done. But since money is always an option get the best amp you can for your money and make the best of it.

I'm currently playing through a crate v33 modded with the soldano mod and it sounds fantastic. It's a little loud and gets a little hot in the iso box but it plays and sounds awesome. Saving up for some blue alnicos and I'm done.